Thanks very much. A couple more questions (which I'll ask Spike if they're not appropriate here):

Is it reasonable/feasible to upgrade the internal drive prior even to turning on the new Series 3 for the first time, activating it, etc.?

Yes, you can do that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rrg

And if so, is it additionally reasonable/feasible to marry an external drive at the same time, i.e. before first powering up the TiVo?

Yes, you can do that.

Before upgrading, I would check to see whether the unit is DOA though. Some small percentage of units are bad out of the box (i.e. damaged in shipping). But you can certainly upgrade before you've run through guided setup to activate your account, setup your provider / channels, etc.

Thanks very much. A couple more questions (which I'll ask Spike if they're not appropriate here):

Is it reasonable/feasible to upgrade the internal drive prior even to turning on the new Series 3 for the first time, activating it, etc.?

And if so, is it additionally reasonable/feasible to marry an external drive at the same time, i.e. before first powering up the TiVo?

My thought is just that if I have to open up the case anyway I might as well perform both upgrades at the same time, if it's practical.

Yep, what bkdtv said, yes and yes.

Just curious, how much capacity are you planning on having? Depending on what you're after the least expensive way is to upgrade the internal drive - up to 1TB. Of course if you need more space, you can add an eSATA drive, but if not, there's no need to have one.

After reading the FAQ and a few pages of posts, would this be correct:

Even though you can get a 500gb WD drive for a savings of $50 from Amazon (WDG1SU5000), the prudent thing to do would be to just spend $200 and get the 'approved' DVR Expander drive (WDG1S5000) from TiVo?

You're getting as much additional storage that costs less than 1/2 the price of a 750GB DB35 internal drive kit, and you retain all support for your Series 3.

I'm ordering a 2nd Series 3 from Amazon for $568 ($368 w/rebate) which is also less than 1/2 the price I paid for my first unit a year ago. With Tivo2Go and MultiRoomViewing now, does life get much better?

Even though you can get a 500gb WD drive for a savings of $50 from Amazon (WDG1SU5000), the prudent thing to do would be to just spend $200 and get the 'approved' DVR Expander drive (WDG1S5000) from TiVo?

If you're going to buy a retail eSATA drive (rather than building your own), the "Tivo Verified" Western Digital My DVR Expander is the only product I would consider.

Another alternative to consider is an upgrade of the internal drive with a 1Tb model like the Western Digital WD10EACS, but then you give up Tivo support. A number of members were able to buy that drive for $260 on sale. We're about two weeks away from Black Friday and the holiday shipping season, so it is possible we will see another sale on that drive in the near future.

Thanks for the quick response. Considering the price of the expander, and that I will now have 2 Series 3 boxes with which to transfer programs between, I went ahead and ordered the expander from TiVo. I have an extended warranty on my current box, so cracking it open will void it.

And with a total of >120 hours of HD, I have more space than I ever would have dreamed possible last year.

Now if I could only get my cable company to realize that cable cards are a valid alternative to digital cable boxes, and not charge $3 a month for each, I'd be in business.

Just curious, how much capacity are you planning on having? Depending on what you're after the least expensive way is to upgrade the internal drive - up to 1TB. Of course if you need more space, you can add an eSATA drive, but if not, there's no need to have one.

I'm going to max this new unit out with 1TB internal +1TB external.

We're running now with a 750GB Series 3 (upgraded before purchase) and this new TV season is killing us; I record everything as "Keep until I delete" and I'm having a hell of a time keeping ahead of it. We're recording a lot more than we're watching, and planning to get to it later--perhaps in the summer, or maybe when the writer's strike causes the current season to dry up.

Turning on TTG/TTCB has improved things because now we have the option to off-load shows to PC storage, but we need another Series 3 anyway to take advantage of MRV and (equally important) to add another couple of tuners.

Although we have other ways to record (capture cards, Nextcom-modified R5000-HD satellite and cable STBs, HR10-250 TiVos, HDHomeRun, etc.), the TiVo Series 3 is by far my favorite platform for this so I hope to move to it as much as possible (in place of other flaky media player alternatives).

I also plan to add an external 1TB drive to the original 750GB series 3. Which raises one more question (if you don't mind): will the MFSLive tools allow me to upgrade the already-upgraded-750GB Series 3 to use a 1TB internal, while still preserving all its recordings? From a quick perusal it looks like the answer's yes, but I haven't looked in depth yet.

I also plan to add an external 1TB drive to the original 750GB series 3. Which raises one more question (if you don't mind): will the MFSLive tools allow me to upgrade the already-upgraded-750GB Series 3 to use a 1TB internal, while still preserving all its recordings? From a quick perusal it looks like the answer's yes, but I haven't looked in depth yet.

We're running now with a 750GB Series 3 (upgraded before purchase) and this new TV season is killing us; I record everything as "Keep until I delete" and I'm having a hell of a time keeping ahead of it. We're recording a lot more than we're watching, and planning to get to it later--perhaps in the summer, or maybe when the writer's strike causes the current season to dry up.

Turning on TTG/TTCB has improved things because now we have the option to off-load shows to PC storage, but we need another Series 3 anyway to take advantage of MRV and (equally important) to add another couple of tuners.

Although we have other ways to record (capture cards, Nextcom-modified R5000-HD satellite and cable STBs, HR10-250 TiVos, HDHomeRun, etc.), the TiVo Series 3 is by far my favorite platform for this so I hope to move to it as much as possible (in place of other flaky media player alternatives).

I also plan to add an external 1TB drive to the original 750GB series 3. Which raises one more question (if you don't mind): will the MFSLive tools allow me to upgrade the already-upgraded-750GB Series 3 to use a 1TB internal, while still preserving all its recordings? From a quick perusal it looks like the answer's yes, but I haven't looked in depth yet.

Thanks very much for all the help.

Understood. Do you mind if I sight your post as an example for my wife? She thinks I'm insane for wanting more than the original 250GB drive our S3 came with. Knowing that there are others out there that think 2TB's might not be enough could, just could keep her from rolling her eyes at me so often.

Oh, and as bkdtv (who's beating me to the punch these days ) said, yes you can have your cake and eat it too.

I'm ready to install the expansion, but for some reason after about 8 days of registering for priority push I do not have 9.2 on my HD Tivo. Should I re-register for priority, or it may take longer than specified 3 business days in some cases?
OM

Do you mind if I cite your post as an example for my wife? She thinks I'm insane for wanting more than the original 250GB drive our S3 came with. Knowing that there are others out there that think 2TB's might not be enough could, just could keep her from rolling her eyes at me so often.

By all means. High-definition takes so much space (you must already have pointed out) that 2 TB is not nearly enough if you're archiving anything at all, and even if you're not you can run out easily unless you don't care about what gets saved.

I have friends who just want there to be something good to watch when they sit down, so they don't care if the TiVo erases older things. I'm way too obsessive for that: if I'm following a series, I want to see all the episodes, not just some of them. And I might not be able to watch for a long time, so I need to rely on the recorder hanging onto them for me--either that or do a lot of work to extract them and restore them later. Throwing disk space at the problem (and it's gotten SO amazingly cheap) is a great solution that works for a long time.

Quote:

Oh, and as bkdtv (who's beating me to the punch these days) said, yes you can have your cake and eat it too.

Another thought/question: the new Series 3 (which arrived today from amazon.com) will likely not have the 9.2 software installed yet. Will this affect my ability to marry the external drive prior to activating the unit?

I'm guessing it won't, since I'm using the mfsadd technique to add the second drive, and not the TiVo-sanctioned technique.

Another thought/question: the new Series 3 (which arrived today from amazon.com) will likely not have the 9.2 software installed yet. Will this affect my ability to marry the external drive prior to activating the unit?

I'm guessing it won't, since I'm using the mfsadd technique to add the second drive, and not the TiVo-sanctioned technique.

You are correct, since you're not using a kickstart or plug and pray method to add your expansion drive, no worries about the software version.

You can sign up for the latest trial version of the next update or just leave it alone and it will eventually upgrade when they push the final version ETA later this month.

I'm ready to install the expansion, but for some reason after about 8 days of registering for priority push I do not have 9.2 on my HD Tivo. Should I re-register for priority, or it may take longer than specified 3 business days in some cases?
OM

Keep in mind that TiVo only downloads priority requests 1x/day and distributes upgrades Monday through Friday only...so you can't count weekends. Also note that they appear to be coordinating downloads to all of the TiVo's in a household at the same time.

v.9.2.j priority upgrades seemed to have flooded out to S3’s and TiVo HD’s earlier, around October 18th or so, but have now slowed quite a bit based on the posts on the forum. There are a couple of things I can think of that may be causing it.

The general public has been given the link from the expansion drive page. Historically the link has been pretty hard to find except for us hard core fanatics. The additional demand may be slowing the system a bit.

IIRC in the past when a final version was about to be pushed out, they stopped distribution of the trial version. It's possible that they're preparing to push the final, v9.2, into the wild. That usually takes place over a period of about three weeks. It might be longer this time around as word from a few CSR’s (take it for what that’s worth), is v9.2 will be sent to all boxes including Series 2’s.

TiVo did promise the latest update for November so it may be ready to roll (usually starts on a Monday).

So that's my "what if/maybe/WAG" list for today.

I've seen reports of some folks that tried re-registering and it seemed to have worked and others that have done so three or four times to no avail...your call.

EDIT: Hey, I was right (for once)! The final upgrade, v9.2 is about to be distributed. More here.

So has anyone figured out yet how the MyDVR Expander technically works to be a "approved drive?" Is it something that is imaged onto the MyDVR drive itself, in the firmware, or some other approach? I have a THD with an Antex MX-1 waiting for a nice shiny 1TB drive but I'm hesitant to open up the THD because it will void my warranty. Is there any hope for a PNP "workaround" solution for eSATA on a THD or should I give up now?

So has anyone figured out yet how the MyDVR Expander technically works to be a "approved drive?" Is it something that is imaged onto the MyDVR drive itself, in the firmware, or some other approach? I have a THD with an Antex MX-1 waiting for a nice shiny 1TB drive but I'm hesitant to open up the THD because it will void my warranty. Is there any hope for a PNP solution for eSATA on a THD or should I give up now?

No idea what they're using to ID the "approved device". I'd bet it's the drive model number, but that’s just speculation based on the fact that that’s what appears on the System Info screen once an external drive is married up. I’m not sure how you could “fool” TiVo into thinking that a different drive had the same model number.

Based on posts from TiVo folks, I don't think there's any hope of adding an "unapproved device" via P&P to the TiVo HD any time soon. I think if someone like Spike had conquered it we'd know by now.

If you're going to open the box and use WinMFS to upgrade your unit (now or later) I'd just replace the internal drive with your 1TB drive and forget about the expansion...unless you need the few more gigs that your existing internal drive would give you.

Here’s my little dissertation on upgrading TiVo and voiding the warranty. For those that have read it before, feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

TiVo's come with a 90 day limited warranty. One of the limitations includes voiding the warranty by removing the cover. I remember our old TiVo's had a warranty sticker stuck to the outside which would usually be destroyed if you pulled the cover...although a lot of us did it anyway. The new boxes don't have any such sticker that I'm aware of, so I'm not sure how they can tell. Hopefully an expert can shed some light on that point. (Still waiting on that.)

In truth the one item that most often fails in TiVo's case is the hard drive (and that's somewhat unusual, on par with HDD failures overall). The mother board, power supply, modem, and various other items rarely if ever cause any problems and if they do it will usually show up in the form of a DOA box, one that never works OR years later, long after the warranty has expired. In that respect, TiVo is really no different than most computers.

If you purchased your TiVo from TiVo the risk is a little higher that you may have problems with warranty support. If you purchased it from Amazon or a retail supplier, you can generally return it for a replacement no questions asked anyway. If you used a credit card that automatically extends the warranty so much the better.

As long as you don't destroy something during the upgrade the likelihood of a new hard drive damaging something else in TiVo is pretty much zero. If you're likely to do some damage replacing a hard drive, you probably shouldn't even think about it.

No one here will openly advocate voiding TiVo's warranty, but the bottom line is that AFAIK if you upgrade the hard drive and something else fails, you can replace it with the original (providing you kept it) and still get it serviced by TiVo - full replacement (with a repaired, renewed or comparable product) in the first 90 days or an exchange with a fee ($49) within a year. There are even a number of stories here about TiVo replacing boxes for an exchange fee a year-and-a-half or two later.

After more than a half-dozen TiVo's...one a refurb and all modded in one way or another...I've never returned one for anything. Call me lucky, but I really don't have much heartburn over opening them up when I get them any more. Of course, YMMV.

In various posts I keep seeing references to the "Hitachi acoustic tools". What are these, where can I get them, and would I need to apply them to the Western Digital WD10EACS 1TB drives that I'll be using (both internal and external)?

I've also seen a few references to a "supersize" option and to people having problems (or not) with it, but it's not clear to me what it is.

In various posts I keep seeing references to the "Hitachi acoustic tools". What are these, where can I get them, and would I need to apply them to the Western Digital WD10EACS 1TB drives that I'll be using (both internal and external)?

I've also seen a few references to a "supersize" option and to people having problems (or not) with it, but it's not clear to me what it is.

Adjusting the acoustic management on your new drive isn't necessary but might be helpful if the drive is noisy during its seek sequences (clicking, etc.) The reference is to the Hitachi Feature Tool:

It's a small program you can download to your PC or to a floppy. You can then connect your new drive, boot from the floppy disk and use the acoustic management program to adjust the sound of your new drive to the lowest level, 128. There are detailed directions on the web page as well.

"Supersize" is part of the WinMFS program for upgrading drives available here:

A couple of folks mentioned that they had problems when they enabled "Supersize" but Spike2k5 (the creator of WinMFS) says there shouldn't be any issues. You can read up on it on his website. There is a forum there as well.

I applied the acoustic management to my new WD 1TerByte and it is essentially silent in the Tivo HD case. My older S3 with the old Seagate 750 (not DB35) was clearly audible seek, but it is in the living room, so it doesn't really matter. The HD is going in the bedroom, so I wanted to make it as quiet as possible - and I am really pleased with the results - I wanted to avoid having nightmares of being overrun by chittering little bugs.

I have a TivoHD upgraded with a 750GB internal drive. I'm thinking about adding a 1TB external drive, and I have a couple of questions:

Does the Antec MX-1 come with the sata & power cables to connect the drive INSIDE the case?

When I use WinMFS to add the external drive to the upgraded drive, can I use the original Tivo drive or do I have to use the upgraded drive? (I'm guessing I'd have to use the upgraded drive, but thought I'd double-check.)

I have a TivoHD upgraded with a 750GB internal drive. I'm thinking about adding a 1TB external drive, and I have a couple of questions:

Does the Antec MX-1 come with the sata & power cables to connect the drive INSIDE inside the case?

Not sure what you mean by "INSIDE inside", but the Antec MX-1 includes all of the proper SATA connections inside the enclosure and comes with an eSATA II cable to connect it to TiVo. Ours has worked flawlessly for over six months. However, there were a number of reports of the supplied cable being a problem along about July/August. The SIIG CB-SA0111-S1 is a recommended replacement to ensure there are no problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raoul99

When I use WinMFS to add the external drive to the upgraded drive, can I use the original Tivo drive or do I have to use the upgraded drive? (I'm guessing I'd have to use the upgraded drive, but thought I'd double-check.)